Now we’re jealous. While we’re waiting on dancing and festivals to return to Dubai, our pals in the States are carving up dancefloors and dancing under the stars. Like Mark London, who joins the iamCrü team as our man in the US. The Grammy-nominated DJ and producer stayed and played at the four-day One Love Festival recently. This is his report from the frontline…
The Event
The brainchild of Kenneth Schwenker, One Love Festival is an annual event in Dolan Springs, Arizona. Around 2500 party people descended on this year’s festival.
The Site
The festival site is on 89 acres of desert, a 90-minute drive from Las Vegas. The site is part a farm called Veterans Village, which supports the Warriors For Life America charity. The charity helps ex-soldiers reintegrate back into society after their service.
During the festival set-up, the expansive desert site is sprinkled with art installations, art cars, a vendors’ row, food court and two official sound stages. The main stage is encircled by six domes and the second stage faces out towards the rocky horizon. During the day, the domes host meditation sessions, yoga, tea ceremonies, breath-work exercises and such like. At night, the domes bring a sort of lunar landscape feel to the main stage area.
It’s a bit like an early day Burning Man, with the art cars traversing from stage to stage around sunset and throughout the night. There isn’t anything too fancy – it’s a bit more renegade with mini camps set-up in-between the stages. The village community feel reminds me of California’s Lighting In A Bottle festival but on a smaller scale.
The People
One Love Festival attracts a cool mix of people, all interacting with each other. There’s lots of hippy vibes, it’s kid-friendly and there’s plenty of the EDM hipsters showing their joy of colorful expressions – kinda standard now at music festivals. Lots of beautiful people dancing about and wandering among large circles of motor homes, RVs, Sprinter vans and tents. Some people create their own pop-up musical areas. The turnout was awesome considering the uncertainty after Electric Daisy Carnival and Burning Man both cancelled their events.
The Headliners
The DJ line-up included Paul Oakenfold, Mikey Lions, Doc Martin and the Desert Dwellers. I got behind the decks a few times to DJing too.
The Atmosphere
Like most desert festivals, there’s always a blazing sun overhead and the occasional dust storm kicking up. But this weekend was more blissed-out with cool winds at night and a majestic star-studded sky. The first festival of the year in the entire western region of the US, people really wanted to let go after a long year of Covid isolation and quarantine. There was an uplifting sense of adventure. It was a real celebration of life through music topped off with wellness for the mind, body and spirit.
My first festival since the whole world stopped, it was ace to be back in the mix doing with what makes me happy – celebrating life through dance.
The Crew
There’s never a dull moment when you are part of any festival adventure and it’s always fun to see my mate Paul Oakenfold. He was all beaming smiles as his beloved Chelsea football team had won the FA Cup. It’s always good to see my old homie Doc Martin too. He graced us with two different DJ sets on the same night. I also hung out with KCRW DJ Jason Bentley, who has recently just had twin boys, plus the Denver crew and after-hours heroes Sniff & Wesson. They always drop some serious underground tunes.
I bumped into epic music producer Descent and my New Yorker lawyer friend Jonathan Ross came bearing gifts of red wine and Prosecco. After a year of dance music events put on hold due to the global Covid-19 crises, there was plenty of toasting going on. There were smiles everywhere. Everyone in the industry was saying, ‘Let’s get back to business’. We all want to crack on with doing what we were put on earth to do.
Best Sets
I had fun dancing to Mikey Lions from the Desert Hearts tribe. He played a set of pumping house, electro and bass with some tech overtones. Brett Rubin closed the festival with a great sunrise set of melodic tech and some house anthems. And I also really enjoyed sets by Steve Walker from Las Vegas and Mixology DJ JustN8. It was an epic musical weekend.
The Characters
The most interesting characters were the war veterans, the military elite – heroes in the most outrageous of fashion statements. It was perfect – like a movie flashback from Hunter S. Thompson’s ‘Fear & Loathing’.
The Weird & Wonderful
The sunset foam parties were super fun, with water cannons shooting foam off the top deck of the two-storey Xuza art car to the sound of LA Love Collective’s DJ sets.
The weirdest thing was when a Charles Manson-looking dude and his hippie dog crashed our private closing party. After telling us he had a complex about a certain part of his body, he whipped it out for shock value. Nobody wanted to see that! He was politely told, “Dude, you gotta leave.”
The Bucket List
Add One Love Festival to your bucket list. Three years in, the boutique-sized festival has a loyal fanbase. It’s great for anyone looking to experience a more underground, conscious music vibe without the commercial overtones of Coachella. Desert camping with wellness components make it more unique than the bigger festival machines.
Also read: Where is the UAE’s Perfect Party Spot?
